Frederick William MacMonnies

Frederick William MacMonnies (1863-1937), was the best known expatriate American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school, as successful and lauded in France as he was in the United States.

He was also a highly accomplished painter and portraitist.

He was born in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York and died in New York City.

Three of MacMonnies' best-known sculptures are Nathan Hale, Bacchante and Infant Faun and Diana.

Pioneer Monument by Frederick William MacMonnies (detail)

Sherree Valentine Daines, 1956 | Modern Impressionist painter

Sherree Valentine Daines was born in Effingham, Surrey. She was not always an artist, at 18 she began work as a legal secretary in London. Realising the quality of the idle sketches she drew on her legal pads, it became clear that she had a talent for drawing.

Valentine Daines studied fine art at Epsom School of Art for 4 years, leaving in 1980. It was during her time at art school that she developed an interest in painting figures.

After graduating, she spent the first summer in Cornwall, painting villages, harbours and beaches and most of all the people. She has also been known to paint the busy streets of London, especially showing passers by hailing cabs, looking around markets or leaving the theatre.

Lord Frederic Leighton | Victorian-era painter

Frederic Leighton, Baron Leighton, also called Sir Frederic Leighton, Baronet (born Dec. 3, 1830, Scarborough, Yorkshire, Eng.-died Jan. 25, 1896, London), academic painter of immense prestige in his own time.

After an education in many European cities, he went to Rome in 1852, where his social talents won him the friendship of (among others) the English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, the French novelist George Sand, and the English poet Robert Browning.

Leighton’s painting Cimabue’s Madonna, shown at the Royal Academy’s exhibition in 1855, was bought by Queen Victoria.

Berit Hildre, 1964 | Figurative sculptor

Berit Hildre is a self-taught artist, born in Aalesund, in Norway.

For Berit Hildre, the vocation is late, it is born from his meeting with the painter Louis Tresseras with whom she lives today in France.

"I'm a Norwegian. Twenty years ago, I left my country to travel. I met Louis on Crete. I began to model the earth, just to try. I continued for pleasure" - Bérit

This exceptional sculptor offers us all the innocence of childhood.

Her delicate and graceful little girls and girls embody the state of grace that is childhood, but also its fragility.

Jane DeDecker, 1961 | Figurative sculptor

Jane DeDecker has been sculpting the human figure for over thirty-five years. She seeks to capture moments that reveal truths about the human condition, that, when stripped down to their essence, are understood intrinsically.

As a figurative sculptor, she communicates emotional experience through lyrical compositions that move the viewer.

DeDecker’s sculptures stop life in mid-sentence - somewhere between inhaling and exhaling - and gives it form. She tells a story through the simple moments that imprint our lives and define us.

Alda Merini / Camille Claudel | Smile woman / Sorridi donna

Camille Claudel | The Mature Age, 1913 (detail) | Claudel room at the Musée Rodin in Paris

Sorridi donna

sorridi sempre alla vita

anche se lei non ti sorride

Sorridi agli amori finiti

sorridi ai tuoi dolori

Edgar Degas | Life and Artworks

Edgar Degas seems never to have reconciled himself to the label of "Impressionist", preferring to call himself a "Realist" or "Independent". Nevertheless, he was one of the group’s founders, an organizer of its exhibitions, and one of its most important core members.

Like the Impressionists, he sought to capture fleeting moments in the flow of modern life, yet he showed little interest in painting plein air landscapes, favoring scenes in theaters and cafés illuminated by artificial light, which he used to clarify the contours of his figures, adhering to his Academic training.

Michelangelo Buonarroti | Vita ed Opere

Michelàngelo (o Michelàngiolo; propr. Michelàgnolo) Buonarroti - Architetto, scultore, pittore, poeta (Caprese, od. Caprese Michelangelo, Arezzo, 1475 - Roma 1564). Culmine della civiltà rinascimentale, celebrato come il massimo genio del suo tempo, ne rappresentò anche la drammatica conclusione. Apprendista dal 1487 nella bottega di D. Ghirlandaio, intorno al 1489 venne in contatto presso il giardino di S. Marco, domicilio della collezione di antichità della famiglia Medici, con la statuaria classica e la filosofia neoplatonica, componenti essenziali per lo sviluppo della sua produzione artistica.

Nel 1498 il cardinale J. Bilhères gli commissionò per la sua tomba in S. Petronilla a Roma la Pietà : per il carattere di perfetta armonia, grazia e bellezza, l'opera suscitò universale ammirazione. Tornato a Firenze, Michelàngelo realizzò la statua di David🎨(1501-04), quindi nel 1505 fu di nuovo a Roma per eseguire la tomba di Giulio II in S. Pietro, i cui tormentati lavori si sarebbero protratti per oltre quarant'anni.